Apparatus for removing skin sections

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for obtaining skin sections of preselected thickenesses and widths having a reciprocating blade mounted within its housing. The blade can be reciprocated either manually by a displacing member or mechanically by a motor and suitable power source. The graft thickness is determined by positioning to a selected setting a member located at the forward portion of the housing so that more or less of the cutting edge of the blade is exposed, and the graft width is determined by positioning selectively removable guide runners located in spaced relationships each with the other.

United States Patent Hardy, Jr.

[ 51 June 20, 1972 [54] APPARATUS FOR REMOVING SKIN SECTIONS [72] Inventor: Thomas G. Hardy, Jr., 621 Glen Echo Trail, Winston-Salem, NC. 27106 [22] Filed: July 20,1970

[21] Appl.N0.: 56,343

[52] US. Cl ..128/305 [51] Int. Cl. ..A6lb 17/322 [58] Field of Search 128/305, 305.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,935,605 11/1933 Altruda ..128/305.5 2,457,772 12/1948 Brown et a1 ..128/305.5

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,009,467 3/1952 France ..128/305.5

Primary Examiner-Channing 1.. Pace Attorney-Charles Y. Lackey [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for obtaining skin sections of preselected thickenesses and widths having a reciprocating blade mounted within its housing. The blade can be reciprocated either manually by a displacing member or mechanically by a motor and suitable power source. The graft thickness is determined by positioning to a selected setting a member located at the forward portion of the housing so that more or less of the cutting edge of the blade is exposed, and the graft width is determined by positioning selectively removable guide runners located in spaced relationships each with the other.

1 Claim, 8 Drawing Figures BACKGROUND, BRIEF SUMMARY AND OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION Quite a number of complex power and manually driven devices for obtaining skin grafts are now available for general use in surgery. These devices, commonly and occasionally referred to herein as dermatomes, are for the most part:difficult to set up and use because of the required power source connection, sterilization, and maintenance of all parts. Because of this, these dermatomes are tedious and expensive to use.

The present invention isdesigned for simplicity. and for, use in a doctors office, minor surgery operating room, emergency room, or major surgery operating room. It contains a minimum of moving parts and is considerably easier to use than conventional devices. This results in a significant saving of time and expense for the patient and hospital as compared to that normally experienced in setting up a conventional dermatome in the various operating areas of a modern-day hospital.

The present invention consists of a simple housing with -a substantially flat bottom portion and a reciprocally mounted blade held by that housing in a manner to expose the cutting edge of the blade against the skin area to be removed. In the simplest embodiment, theblade is reciprocated by a lever movable between two positions and continuously biased .in one of these positions by a spring. A handle extends upwardly and rearwardly from the housing in close proximity to the movable lever so that the user can grasp the dermatome with the thumb and last three fingers of his hand about the handle and use the forefinger to displace the lever and thus reciprocate the blade for cutting. Preferably a pair of runners are positioned along the bottom of the housing and thus form guide means for selecting the surface width of the skin graft to be obtained. A displacing member is located at theforward portion of the housing and is adjustable by rotation at selected height settings to permit skin sections of predetermined thicknesses to be taken.

A somewhat more expensive yet equally satisfactory dermatome is offered as an alternative embodiment and contains a small motor driven by an appropriate power source that is cam-linked with a movable lever to thus provide powerized reciprocation for the housing-mounted cutting blade.

From the foregoing, it can be seen that a primary object of the present invention is to provide a dermatome of extremely simple design which can remove skin sections of-predetermined thicknesses and surface widths.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a dermatome of the type described wherein a cutting blade can be reciprocally mounted within a housing and actuated either manually or by an appropriate motor drive.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a dermatome of the type described which can be used in the doctor's office, clinic, emergency room or operating room.

These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent after a consideration of the following detailed specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate like parts throughout the several views.

FIGURE DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the manually operated dermatome constituting one embodiment of the present invention illustrating the reciprocally mounted cutting blade and the movable lever operably connected to reciprocate the blade.

FIG. 2 is a top plan, fragmentary view of the manually operated dermatome illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom plan and fragmentary view of the manually operable dermatome shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 having a onepiece slidably adjustable bottom plate to selectively vary the width of the graft tobe taken.

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan and fragmentary view of a dermatome such as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 having yet another variation of the guide means to vary the width of the graft to be taken.

FIG. 5 is an endelevational and sectional view taken along the lines 5--5 of FIG. 4 showing the recessed positioning of the movable guides within thesurface of the housing.

FIG. 6 is perspective, fragmentary and exploded view of the structure permitting adjustment of the displacing member shown particularly in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is a side elevational, sectional and fragmentary view of a motor driven dermatome constituting another embodiment of the present invention illustrating the motor-driven connection to the movable lever for reciprocatingthe cutting blade.

FIG. 8 is a plan, sectional .and fragmentary view of the motor-driven dermatome illustrated in FIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE As illustrated in the drawings and particularly in FIG. 1, embodiments of the dermatome shown generally as 10 contain a housing 12 from which extends a handle 14 upwardly and rearwardly for gripping by the user. The housing has a pair of side flanges 16 between which is formed a downwardly inclined ramp 18 within which is held a reciprocally mounted cutting blade 20 of conventional design. A support 22 for the blade 20 is movably secured to the ramp 18 by screws 26 or other suitable means. The blade 20 is secured to the movable support 22 by a clamp 28 and an appropriate screw 30 or other device.

A lever 32 is pivotally fastened by a pin 34 or an equivalent item to ramp 18, and its short end 36is movably connected with support 22 by another appropriate pinning means 38. Thus pivoting lever 32 about pivot point 34 will allow it to move between two positions established by the length ofslots 40 intheir corresponding reaction to screws 26. A spring 42 is positioned contiguous with the short end 36 of lever-32 and the surface of housing 12 so that lever 32 is continuously biased to a first position but will yield when displaced with sufficient force to overcome the spring 42 and move to a second position.

Thoughit is obvious that a'pair of runners such as shown in FIG. 1 may be positioned adjacent thebottom of housing 12 to establish the width of the skin section to betaken, it has been found desirable to provide four runnersformed in two pairs 44 and 48 proximate the bottom 50 of housing 12, and the inner pair 48 can be removed to expand the width of the skin graft desired. Removal of runner pair 48 permits the cutting of a skin section having a width 2 while retention of this pair within the bottom 50 of the. housing 12 will allow for the removal of a skin section having a width x. Removing only one runner of the pair 48 will permit a third width of skin section to be taken indicated in FIG. 4 as y.

.Runner pairs 44 and 48 can be secured in any convenient manner to the housing bottom 50;however, in the embodiment illustrated, runner pairs 44 and 48 are seated within the bottom 50 of the housing 12 by means of dovetailed grooves 52 best illustrated in FIG. 5.

Another embodiment of a component for selectively establishing the width of the skin section to be taken is illustrated in FIG. 3 and comprises a one'piece bottom plate 54 having a major recess 56 along its forward edge and an additional somewhat diminished recess 58 within major recess 56. The plate is slidably adjustable in a. forward and rearward direction (see arrow) along the bottom of the housing 12 so that the cutting edge 60 of blade 20 will be exposed for one dimension when the bottom plate 54 is in its most rearward position and in another dimension when the bottom plate is moved forwardly so that the diminished recess determines the exposed dimension of the blade.

A displacing member shown generally as 62 is pivotally mounted at the forward portion of housing 12 between side flanges 16 in any convenient manner so that the runners 64 are adjacent therewith as shown in FIG. 1. Member 62 has at least two substantially flat surfaces 66 and 68 representing selected settings of depth of cut for the section to be obtained. Member 62 may be rotated manually to expose the flat surface representing the thickness desired and thus establish a vertical distance between member 62 and the cutting edge of the blade. Commonly used thicknesses are 0.012 inch for a thin skin graft and 0.015 inch for a thicker graft. A code marking 70 for the displacing member 62 has been found to be a convenient way of positively identifying the thickness of the skin graft to be taken. By various embodiments disclosed previously, three skin graft widths varying from approximately 1.5 to 4 centimeters can be obtained.

FIGS. 7 and 8 disclose generally the same housing and cutting structure as the previous illustrations and descriptions; however, lever 32 is power driven by a small motor 72 which can be actuated by batteries 74 or other suitable power means. A camming drive such as that illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 8 can be used to reciprocate lever 32. Rotation of the flywheel 76 by the shaft 78 upon energization of the motor will provide the necessary motion power for reciprocating blade 20.

It is desirable to provide a plurality of longitudinally extending grooves 80 along the bottom of housing 12 if a plurality of runners are used or within the one-piece bottom plate 54 in the event that structure is desirable as these indentures are effective in increasing stability when the derrnatome slides across the area from which the skin section is being taken. Acrylic material has been found to be very satisfactory for forming the housing 12 as well as the displacing member 62. Obviously the simple design of the present invention makes maintenance relatively easy. A hollow handle 82 ispreferable to house the motor 72 and accompanying batteries 74 and is shaped to provide convenient gripping means for the user.

A manual and power-driven embodiment of a dermatome has been described herein, and it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations in the housing, blade driving mechanism and skin graft thickness and width setting devices may be made without departing from the spirit and purpose of this concept. Such modifications and a1- terations are contemplated.

I claim:

1. An apparatus for removing skin sections comprising: a housing; a cutting blade reciprocally mounted on said housing for severing skin sections; means for reciprocating said cutting blade; guide means releasably secured to said housing; and means regulating the relative positioning of said cutting blade and said guide means including a one-piece plate positioned adjacent said housing having a first recess along the forward edge and a second recess within said first recess, said plate being selectively moveable to expose the cutting edge of said blade to a selected recess. 

1. An apparatus for removing skin sections comprising: a housing; a cutting blade reciprocally mounted on said housing for severing skin sections; means for reciprocating said cutting blade; guide means releasably secured to said housing; and means regulating the relative positioning of said cutting blade and said guide means including a one-piece plate positioned adjacent said housing having a first recess along the forward edge and a second recess within said first recess, said plate being selectively moveable to expose the cutting edge of said blade to a selected recess. 